PentiumD 3.20ghz vs E6700 2.6ghz

[dave562]

I'm running the following motherboard in my bargain bin gaming machine.

http://www.biostar.com.tw/app/en-us/mb/content.php?S_ID=173

I currently have the 3.20ghz PentiumD (940 SL95W) processor in it. I see that the board supports a 2.66ghz Core2Duo chip (E6700 SL9S7). Obviously the E6700 runs at a faster FSB speed and uses less voltage. Both chips have the same amount of L2 cache (4MB). The E6700 runs at an overall higher clock speed.

I am running Windows XP (32bit). I currently have 2GB of 533mhz RAM (Kingston).

Is the E6700 significantly better than the 940? Will the 2.66ghz E6700 significantly outperform the 3.20ghz 940? If so, where is a good place to get the E6700 chip? I've checked NewEgg and a few other sites but they all seem to be carrying the E6750.

I mainly use the machine to play games and I already have a GeForce 8800GT with 512MB of RAM on it. I do the occassional DVD encoding but other than that I do not use many applications that are CPU intensive.

 

[jimmysmitty]

Oh yes. the E6700 will mop the floor with the 940. But they are very hard to find.

I would suggest Ebay. Intel doesn't make the E6700s anymore. In fact the E6750s will be out soon too.

 

[Dougx1317]

Yes, the E6700 is much better than the PD940. The E6750 is pretty much the same as the E6700. The mobo should support it.

If your motherboard could support it, I'd go for the E8400.

Also, if you don't think you need a new processor, why waste the money. Your Pentium D can probably last a bit longer. Only upgrade if it'll be worth the $150+.

 

[dave562]

Thanks for the replies guys. I'm only considering doing the upgrade because Christmas is coming and I have some extra money. I had thought that the CPU prices would have dropped a lot by now because they are so old. Most of the places that I have found them want ~$350 though!?!? That seems ridiculous when E8400s are going for less than that.

Where else besides eBay can I look for old E6700s?

 

[RetiredChief]

Hard to find the e6700, if you do it is way overpriced, found one for like 350.

Might find a E6400 for arround $200. I have one and Like many, have it OCed to 3.2 GHz. NOTE not much diff between 6400/6700 if OCed to 3.2. Not sure your into overclocking. And Yes both will beat the pentium D940

Here are two places. CAN Not vouch for estore. But do a google for E6400.

http://www.nowdirect.com/exec/partInfo/part_detail.tsb?prcpart=ISPHH80557PH0462M

http://www.compumusic.com/p162876.htm

 

[50bmg]

If it will support the e8400 than try the e7200. it is cheap($120) and can OC big time (3.8Ghz).

 

[Onus]

An e4x00 will "mop the floor" with a 940D, especially if you overclock it.

 

[kamel5547]

You can also find an e6600 for cheaper (Tiger direct ~155 OEM version), not much of a difference in speed.

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/searchtools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=2280512&Sku=CP2-DUO-E6600&SRCCODE=GOOGLEBASE&cm_mmc_o=TBBTkwCjCVyBpAgf%20mwzygtCjCVRqCjCVRq

 

[4745454b]

Considering how bad the netburst arch is, you'd be surprised what would beat that 940. I remember when the C2D first came out, there were three basic groupings. The first were the C2D based machine (including the 6300) at the top, with the Athlon64s in the middle, followed by the 9xx series at the bottom. I was impressed that the lowend 1.86MHz, 2MB cache, 1066FSB 6300 could beat the highest clocked 9xx chips nearly at will. (there were only a few tests that the 9xx would win, and they didn't really matter.)

I don't think I'd bother upgrading the CPU however. If this is your "bargain bin gaming machine", keep putting the older things as you upgrade into it. Meaning as you upgrade your machine(s), put the old things into this computer. That way it sees upgrades, but as its not your primary gaming rig, you aren't actually spending money on it.

 

[50bmg]

Try the e2180 @ $70 or the e5200 @ $80.

 

[dave562]

I will look into the E6400. Will that be better than the 940D?

I don't mind overclocking, in fact I've been overclocking chips since the P3/450 days. But I'd rather not try to do it on this cheap-o BioStar board. If I had an Asus board, that would be another story.

 

[50bmg]

E5200 at $80
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819116072

2.5G @ 800Mhz fsb and a 12.5 multiplier.
http://processorfinder.intel.com/details.aspx?sSpec=SLAY7

Edit: 45nm also

 

[RetiredChief]

His MB only supports the following c2d's:
E6x00
E4x00
E21xx

 

[dave562]

If this is your "bargain bin gaming machine", keep putting the older things as you upgrade into it.

Thanks for the reply. When I said bargain bin, I meant that I haven't spent much money on it. The machine is my primary gaming machine. I just don't have a lot of money to build an insane, top of the line machine and my gaming is limited to about 10 hours a week of WoW that I play with my g/f.

The concensus seems to be that the E6xxx series chips will definitely beat the 940D despite running at slower clock speeds. I thought that was probably the case but I didn't want to go spend a couple of hundred dollars and deal with the hassle of taking the computer apart for only a slight upgrade.

 

[50bmg]

ah.

The e2180 2Ghz to start with a 10 multiplier for $70 would be a nice economy cpu. A lot cooler and still probably equal or better than the 940. I got rid of my pent d 6 months ago. It was a dog.

 

[4745454b]

Ohhhh, that bargain bin. In that case, yes, get any of the C2D based chips that you can. I'm not sure if the 21xx (stock) will beat the 940, but any of the 4 or 6 series chips should. (yes, stock) Not only will they be faster, but they will consume less power, emit less heat, etc.

WoW isn't very CPU intensive, are you sure you need this upgrade?

 

[dave562]

WoW isn't very CPU intensive, are you sure you need this upgrade?

I don't need it for WoW but I am going to try to play GTA IV when it comes out. I realize that the system will be underpowered for that game but I'd like to get as close as I can to having a decent GTA IV experience.

Do you think that the nvidia 9800 series cards are significantly better than the 8800 series? I'm not going to SLi them or anything.

 

[50bmg]

well. if his mobo was running a fire hot 940 he can stretch OCing a e2180 just enought to get him another 6 months out of his system.

 

[4745454b]

Gotcha. Now I'm up to speed I hope.

In some cases the 9 series cards ARE the 8 series cards. The 9500GT is nothing more then an 8600GT. The 9600GSO is an 8800GS. The 9800GT is an 8800GT. Some of the nine cards are different/new, (9600GT, 9800GTX) but others are simply 8 series cards with new names. I don't think they are "significantly better", but seeing as the named 8 series cards are being phased out, the 9s are probably a better buy.

 

[RetiredChief]

For performance diff. check this chart (you can select the desired benchmark - use processor intensive vs not using GPU weigthed ones for determining which proc to get.

http://www.tomshardware.com/charts/cpu-charts-2008-q1-2008/Clone-DVD-2-908,374.html

Bear in mind these are normally stock so if you have a modest OC you would have to factor that in

 

[dave562]

Thanks Chief. That is really helpful.

 

[flyin15sec]

From the chart that Chief linked, E2180 or E6700 isn't that much better than the PentiumD 940.

Im just playing devil's advocate here, maybe you should consider this:

Buy a new motherboard with your up'n coming money and invest in a much better CPU cooler. You can then OC your CPU, I've heard to about 4ghz or more.

What's holding you back the most is your mobo, not your CPU. At $150 listing from Tigerdirect for a E6600, that's a nice new mobo with CPU cooler that will support E5x00, E7x00, E8x00, and Q9xx0 processors.

Other major etailers, Fry's, Newegg, Microcenter, doesn'te even list E6x00 CPUs anymore.

 

[dave562]

I'm not really interested in replacing the motherboard. I'd rather just get the most out of the current board and leave it at that. Don't get me wrong, I've been a fan of Asus boards for a long time and I'd much rather have one of those in my case than this BioStar brand board.

I don't want to overclock anything either. I'd rather just run everything at standard specs and be done with it. I realize that this forum is all about getting the most out of the hardware so I appreciate where you are coming from. But I've been using computers since the 286/4mhz and I think the thrill of squeezing every last ounce out of the machine worn off. At this point in my life I just want to turn the thing on and know it will work and not have to constantly worried about CPU temps and voltages and core multipliers and all that.

 

[RetiredChief]

flyinin15sec
Did you go thru the ones that are more related to processor vs GPU. In GPU benchmarks, unless the processor is a bottleneck, they should be relatively close as the determining factor is the GPU.

If you look at PCMark 05-CPU the E6400 only beets the 940 by 2%. But if you look at H.264 Encoding, or 3D Studio Max 9, the gain is like 23% and 34% improvement over 940.

And that does not include the bump from 2.12 GHz -> 3.2 GHz on a $100 MB. That wopuld totally wipe the floor of a 940.

 

[cliffro]

Well I was going to suggest a E21xx and say OC it, but you said you don't want to, So the E6600 would probably be your best bet.

And Tigerdirect has it as someone mentioned earlier, Ill repost the link

Price with Shipping to my area(yours may vary) $161.98
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=2280512&CatId=2396